Hawaii's health director has reiterated the fact that she's personally seen Barack Obama's birth certificate in the Health Department archives.
I doubt that will make any difference to the "birthers," the group of people that insists Obama wasn't born in the U.S., and thus doesn't meet the Constitutional requirements to be president.
One thing I've learned in my years as a reporter is that it's impossible to argue with a hardcore conspiracy theorist.
Understand, I'm not talking about everyone who espouses a conspiracy theory. Because sometimes they actually do pan out.
American history is rife with episodes that sound like outlandish paranoid imaginings, but proved regrettably true. A couple of examples that come to mind immediately are the Tuskeegee experiment and the CIA's LSD testing.
What I'm talking about is the conspiracy theorist who willfully ignores all evidence -- assuming a premise to be true and then twisting the very fabric of reality to correspond with it.
The attempt to argue will usually go something like this:
Conspiracy Theorist: The government is run by three-eyes space monsters.
You: I haven't seen any mention of this in the newspapers.
Conspiracy Theorist: That's because the three-eyed space monsters control the media.
You: That's not true according to history books.
Conspiracy Theorist: Duh! The three-eyed space monsters write the history books.
You: I've been to Washington, D.C., and haven't seen any three-eyed space monsters.
Conspiracy Theorist: That's your story? AHA! You're clearly part of the Great Three-Eyed Space Monster Conspiracy!
Frustrating, isn't it?
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